


every christmas from now on, i'll be here, by your side

by filippellis



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Happy, Mistletoe, Not Much Else To It, just christmas sapphics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:08:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27982815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/filippellis/pseuds/filippellis
Summary: karen always hated christmas.orthe story of how pam made her girlfriend love christmas.
Relationships: Pam Beesly/Karen Filippelli
Kudos: 17





	every christmas from now on, i'll be here, by your side

karen always hated christmas. 

she can't remember when she stopped believing in santa or stopped getting too antsy to sleep on christmas eve. but at a certain point, she did, and it was then just her job to entertain her two younger siblings on the holiday, which always proved to be a lot of work. she'd put up the tree and decorate it with them, bake copious amounts of cookies, spend every penny she got on tiny gifts for them, and make sure that they got to experience the holiday in a way she never could. they were too young to know why mommy always slept and why daddy always came home smelling like a different perfume every other month, and they didn't have to. but karen did, and it sort of spoiled any magic surrounding the holiday which was supposed to be all about spending time with family. and if that made her the grinch, well then ba humbug. 

but when she started dating pam, it became almost immediately clear how much their opinions on the holiday differed. 

it came to light when they were curled up on karen's couch together late one night, channel surfing while eating chinese take out in their pajamas. pam was in control of the remote, and when some channel was showing the movie elf, pam let out an enthused gasp, setting down the remote. 

"i love this movie!" she exclaimed, gripping onto karen's arm. in response, karen gave a mix of a laugh and scoff.

"why are they showing this movie in april?"

pam turned to karen, her mouth agape in (somewhat) comedic offense. "it's never too early for a little christmas spirit filippelli!"

"it most certainly is," karen replied. "there's always so much hype around christmas when it's like, the lamest holiday ever."

this was apparently the straw that broke the camel's back for pam, as she abruptly paused the movie and jumped up from the couch, leaning over karen with her hands on her knees in order to look into her eyes.

"karen." pam stated, dead serious.

"pam." karen responded with a laugh.

"i am going to make you love christmas."

karen raised her eyebrows, skeptical but intrigued. "will you now?"

pam nodded with total confidence. "i swear i will."

karen chuckled, gently pulling pam back on the couch by her waist. "whatever you say."

november crept in much sooner than expected, and by that time karen and pam had already moved in together in a small apartment in utica. pam was in charge of the interior design, and as karen had expected, she made the place look so beautiful and cozy. the two often spent time lounging around the house together, not doing anything in particular except enjoying their shared space and each other's company.

karen had been doing that, except this time by herself, as pam had gone out to do some shopping. she sat on their couch, feet propped up on the ottoman, as she read over some documents for work. well, that's what she was supposed to be doing anyway, as she had actually spent most of the time glancing up just to admire the various photos of her and her girlfriend around the room, not being able to stop herself from smiling each time she did so. she remembered the days where building a life with pam seemed like a total fantasy, how she would have to savor each glance and laugh she got from her in that stuffy scranton office. but now they were together and utterly in love, and nothing made karen happier.

as if she had been reading her mind at that moment, pam let herself into their apartment with what seemed to be four or five large bags that she was barely managing to stop from spilling over. karen rushed to her aid, helping her set the bags down on the kitchen table before pulling her girlfriend into a kiss by her scarf. 

"are these all...groceries?" karen asked as she glanced from the bags to pam, as that was what pam had been tasked to buy on her outing. pam shook her head.

"some of it is, but most of it is..." she trailed off for anticipations sake, digging through one of her bags to find a small christmas tree and a bag of small ornaments to go along with it. 

"christmas stuff!" 

karen faked pain, flopping back down on the couch. "it's novemberrrrr," she groaned.

pam joined her on the couch, wrapping her cold arms around karen's shoulders. "post thanksgiving means its officially time to start decorating for christmas! and since it's not only our first christmas together but the christmas that will make you like christmas, i need to bring my a game this year."

defeated by her enthusiasm, karen sighed, then giving pam a smile. "you're persistent beesly, you know that?"

pam smiled back, playfully pinching karen's cheek. "i have to be, miss grinch." 

"yeah yeah," karen said as she swatted pam's hand away with a chuckle. "just get to decorating."

pam obliged, and when she had finished the place admittedly looked great. there wasn't much room for decorations in their apartment, but the small christmas tree that sat atop a festive rug was placed right in the center of the living room, setting the tone for the holiday spirit. along with that, three stockings hung from their fire place; one for karen, which had a reindeer, one for pam, which had a snowman, and one for their cat, alice, which had a snowflake on it. lights were strung around the room, and of course they had an advent calendar full of chocolate which they stored on their coffee table.

they followed the advent calender very strictly, and before they knew it they were eating the last piece of chocolate together on christmas eve.

it was a bitterly cold night, and despite their copious amounts of blankets and cuddling they were both still freezing. pam's nose and cheeks were bright red, and she kept asking karen to kiss them to keep her warm which karen, of course, obliged to. 

they were cuddled up on the couch together with alice and bundles of blankets, channel surfing while eating chocolate and cookies "for santa." karen was in control of the remote this time around, and she flicked through channel after channel before one thing on caught her eye: elf.

karen laughed at the coincidence, keeping it on as pam had all those months ago. "remember when we were watching this movie and you swore to make me love christmas?"

pam grinned, making the rosiness of her cheeks all the more apparent. "of course i do," she said, curling up even closer to karen. "did it work?"

"well i don't know..." karen bantered. "i have to wait until tomorrow to see, right?"

pam rolled her eyes, though she obviously wasn't really annoyed as was apparent from the grin still on her face. "really gonna keep me waiting like that filippelli?"

karen nodded. "yes, yes i am."

she glanced around the room again, now able to appreciate not only pam's initial decorations, but her christmas ones as well. her eyes gazed from their photos together to their stuffed stockings back to pam and simply smiled, her heart getting that warm feeling that it always did in moments like these.

she knew her answer. she just liked to keep pam waiting.

karen woke up christmas morning to pam excitedly shaking her. "look angel, look!" she exclaimed, pointing at the window. karen groggily looked up to see snow falling from the sky, then looking back at pam's giddy face.

"it's a white christmas," pam explained, grin wide as ever on her face, "which means that it's going to be a great christmas."

her sheer joy was enough to make karen grin back, and as unfathomable as it was, believe her. 

they both put on their extremely tacky matching christmas sweaters before pam led karen to the living room by hand, setting her down on the couch and leaving only to make hot cocoa (with extra marshmallows, of course.) after she returned she curled up right next to her, her orange curls up in a ponytail finished off with a reindeer headband. 

the first gift beside their mini christmas tree was from the both of them to alice, a santa plushie filled with catnip which she seemed to thoroughly enjoy. after watching her play for a little while, karen grabbed her gift for pam and handed it to her. the wrapping paper was of snowflakes and was done rather sloppy, but pam didn't seem to mind at all as she gently took off the bow and unwrapped it. she gasped excitedly, pulling tapes out from the box and examining them. 

"vaudeville dvds!" she exclaimed, looking them over. "these are in such good condition, how did you get these?"

karen shrugged. "it was difficult, but it was worth it to see you smile so wide."

pam flung her arms around karen, giving her tiny pecks all around her face as her way of saying thank you. as she pulled out of the hug, she rested her hands on karen's shoulders momentarily. 

"you do know that you're gonna have to watch all of these with me, right?"

karen nodded. "oh i know," she said, acting as if she didn't love it. (how could you not love pam doing all those silly accents while watching?)

pam then pulled out her gift for karen, a present that was much more elegantly wrapped than hers. karen took her time in unwrapping it, careful not to damage what was obviously a delicate gift just from its weight. when she had got it open, her face had instantly lit up.

underneath the wrapping paper was a painting that pam had made of the two of them, modeled after a picture they had taken on their 6th month anniversary that was hung up in that very room. the piece was simply breathtaking, and every little detail from karen's freckles to pam's button nose was perfect. karen ran her fingers over the frame which incased the photo time and time again, each time her eyes drawn to a new little detail to fixate on. a painting of her and the love of her life made by the love of her life; it was something she could stare at forever.

she looked up from her gift, teary eyed. "thank you," she whispered before embracing pam. "i love it so much."

"of course," pam breathed into the nook of karen's shoulder, holding her in such a way that was so warm, so tender. "i love _you_ so much."

"i love you too," karen responded as she leaned her head back to look at her girlfriend. 

"that's certainly good news," pam said with a mischievous smile, "cause guess what?"

"what...?" karen asked, suspicious.

without missing a beat, pam pulled a tiny green leaf with hints of red from her pocket. "mistletoe!!"

karen couldn't help but giggle, cupping pam's cheeks with her cold, cold hands. she pressed her lips to pam's warm ones ever so gently, savoring the strawberry flavor of her lip balm and the fast beating of her heart in such close proximity to her own.

as snow continued to fall outside of the apartment which was now her home with her soulmate, she knew two things for sure.

1\. she loved pamela beesly endlessly 

2\. she now loved christmas as well.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed !! 
> 
> i'm kind of dreading christmas currently, much like karen in the beginning haha, due to pretty unfortunate family circumstances, so i decided to write this fic to cheer myself up and remind myself of all the good things there are about christmas. plus i just love pamkaren and wanted to write something else for them in general.
> 
> feel free to leave comments or kudos if you like, and i hope that you have a wonderful holiday season :-)
> 
> if you'd like to reach my on twitter, my @ is filippeIIis (the last two "Ls" being uppercase "is".)
> 
> title from all my christmases by jillian edwards


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